A Life Forgotten
by Batty Badger
Summary: Otonashi finally passes on to the next stage of the afterlife. He and the other members of Battlefront begin to cross paths, but none of them remember that they've met before.
1. Chapter 1

The second ring woke him up. He lay groggy and confused for two more rings. He managed to reach over and pick up the receiver of the old telephone on the bedside table as it started to ring for the fifth time.

"Hello?" he said drearily.

"Hello. Is this Yuzuru Otonashi?"

"Uhh... Yes it is."

"This is the front desk. I was just calling to make sure you're awake."

"Yeah, I am."

"That's good. I just want to let you know there's no rush to check out. You can stay as long as you need."

"Oh. Okay. Thank you."

"One last thing, we have a message for you here at the front desk. It's from a girl, and she sounded very pleasant on the phone. You can come and pick it up whenever's convenient for you."

"Okay. Thanks again."

"You're welcome. Have a good day Mr. Otonashi."

With that the call ended as the desk clerk hung up. The call left him confused. He didn't remember asking for a wake up call. Now that he thought about it more, he didn't even remember checking in to a hotel. Why was he staying in a hotel? How long had he been here? Obviously he had planned this trip if someone knew where to leave him a message, but who had left it? He racked his brain and couldn't come up with anyone - not just anyone who might have left the message, but anyone at all. He couldn't think of any of his family or friends.

Sitting next to the old landline on the bedside table was a cell phone that had to be his. He picked it up and went into the contacts section. There were no names in it at all. He was in a hotel for seemingly no reason, couldn't think of any people, and had a phone with no contacts. What was going on?

He got out of the hotel bed, went to the window and opened the curtain. He thought perhaps looking outside would remind him of where he was and what he was doing there, but it wasn't the case. Outside he saw a town with narrow roads blanketed in snow. In the middle of the road was a line of trees, now leafless in the winter weather. They were covered in golden lights. It must be very early or he'd slept very late for it to be dark out right now. The place didn't feel or look familiar at all.

"Yuzuru Otonashi," he said quietly, almost as if reminding himself. Right now he was wondering if he'd even know his name if the desk clerk hadn't said it on the phone. He decided the best way to start piecing things together would be to start with the message waiting for him at the front desk. If someone had a message for him they must know him. If he could get into contact with this person - this girl - she might be able to explain to him why he was here.

Yuzuru walked over to the closet and opened it. There were plenty of clothes inside. He had apparently planned to stay for a while. He picked out some warm clothes - he couldn't find a coat - and changed into them. Then he noticed something else that didn't make sense. He didn't see a suitcase anywhere. He double checked the closet and looked under the bed. Nope. No suitcase. Had he carried all the clothes in by hand? Who travels without a suitcase? Nothing made any sense. His goal hadn't changed, though. He still needed to find this girl. He doubted if she could tell him why he didn't have a suitcase, but any information would do at this point. He grabbed the phone with no contacts, and made his way down to the lobby. Once there he approached the woman at the front desk. He figured it must be the same woman that had given him his wake up call.

"Hello. My name's Yuzuru Otonashi. I was told there was a message for me?"

"Yes, Mr. Otonashi. Let me go get it for you." She turned and went into another room behind the counter, then returned quickly with an envelope in hand. "Here you go."

"Thank you."

"Of course."

Yuzuru sat down in one of the lobby chairs to read the message. He unsealed the envelope, which had his name on it. He pulled out the piece of paper inside and unfolded it.

_Dear Yuzuru,_

_I've been waiting for you for a long time. I wasn't sure you'd ever make it here. I was really happy when I found out you'd be coming. I've really missed you. I can't wait to see you again. Meet me in the middle of town, please, so we can finally see each other again._

The note had no name. This surprised him a little, even though he thought in retrospect that it shouldn't. Information didn't seem to want to come easy at the moment. He put the note back in the envelope, folded it in half, and put it into his back pocket.

As soon as Yuzuru stepped outside he noticed several things. There were people walking around and kids playing in the snow, but like him none of them were wearing coats. The moon was out but it wasn't actually cold out at all. Also, once his feet had sunk into the snow he realized the the ground directly outside the hotel was dirt. It seemed like another oddity, but as he thought about it he didn't know what else it would possibly be.

Yuzuru made his way down the street in front of the hotel, the same one he'd seen out the window. Instinctively he felt that this must be one of the main roads of the town. If that were true this road must lead to the middle of town where the mystery girl was waiting. She hadn't specified a time in the note. He figured the meeting must be for today. If he'd just been told about the message today, then it couldn't have been at the front desk long. The note had said that the girl had been waiting for him. He didn't want to make her wait any longer than necessary. He didn't mind if he got there first since he couldn't remember what he should be doing anyway. He pulled out the cell phone to check the time, but it wasn't displayed. Why did he even have this phone? It hadn't been useful yet.

He made it to the center of town fairly quickly. He had been right about the street after all. He brushed the snow off a bench and sat down. He didn't know who he was meeting, but if they'd planned this, obviously the girl would be looking for him.

He didn't have to wait long. As soon as he spotted the girl he knew her immediately. He stood up, but didn't move. He was in complete disbelief. How was she here? He'd lost her so long ago, that finding her again could only mean one thing.

He fell to his knees as she ran to him. They wrapped their arms around each other as tightly as they could. She was right, it felt like it had been an impossibly long time. He wept as he held her, just as he had when she left him.

In her tiny familiar voice, she said to him, "I've missed you, big bro."

"I've missed you too, Hatsune."


	2. Chapter 2

Yuzuru remembered everything. He remembered working two jobs to save up money. He remembered taking Hatsune to see the Christmas lights. He remembered her asking to go back to the hospital. He remembered getting back and realizing that she wasn't just asleep.

Yuzuru had taken Hatsune back to the hospital only to realize that she'd passed away. He'd returned to the hospital and the doctors were waiting to scold him for taking Hatsune out. They could tell immediately that she was gone. They didn't have the heart to reprimand Yuzuru. He'd fallen to the floor and cried as he held her in his arms. It took the doctors a long time to get him to let go of her. Hatsune had been all he'd had.

He remembered wanting to give up after Hatsune died, but he didn't. Her endless gratitude led him to begin studying to become a doctor. He remembered the train to the entrance exam. He remembered the time spent trapped in the tunnel with Igarashi. He remembered signing up as an organ donor in his last few moments. Now he was here.

The question Yuzuru had for his little sister now was, "Why are we here?"

Hatsune stepped back so she could look at him. "We died Yuzuru. Don't you remember? You should, if you remember me."

"Yeah. I remember dying. But why are we in this place? It's kinda strange that I woke up in a place so similar to where you died."

"You woke up here because this is where I live. I like it here."

"So... you live alone?"

"Yeah. It's safe here though. It's not like being alive. Here everything is free, nobody gets sick - everybody is happy. It's all the good things about being alive and none of the bad things."

"I guess that makes sense. It's still weird that I woke up in winter."

"You don't get it. It's always winter here. It's always night here too."

"It's always night?" Yuzuru asked, shocked.

"It is here. There's twelve places you can live in this world. There are three for each season, and you can decide if you want to live where it's day, night, or both."

"I guess that's kind of cool. I still don't get it, though? Why would you live here? Doesn't it remind you... ," he couldn't bring himself to say it. It had hurt him so much.

"Of when I died? Of course it does."

"That doesn't make you sad?"

"Nope. I would have died that night no matter what. It would have been sad if I'd been alone in the hospital. But you took me outside, so I died while I was with you, surrounded by beauty. I was always happy when I was with you, big bro."

Yuzuru was glad to hear his sister say this. Although she'd had cancer and her condition had been worsening, sometimes he couldn't help feeling as though he were to blame for Hatsune's death that night. It had been irresponsible for him to take her out of the hospital.

"So now that you're here, big bro, you can live with me. It'll be better than living by myself." Yuzuru still found it weird that a girl as young as Hatsune would live alone, and even weirder that she was asking him to live with her. As if she were offering a friend to stay for a while after falling on hard times. Then yet another question came to him. He certainly had a lot of questions.

"Mom and Dad aren't here?"

"They're here. They live in Spring Day. I visit them sometimes. Would you rather live with them?"

Yuzuru considered this. He had some memories of his parents, but not many. "No. Of course I'll stay with you Hatsune. If you like it here then I like it here, too."

Hatsune returned to hugging him again. "Oh, thank you big bro! It'll be so much fun finally being together again!"

"I have an idea before we go home, though."

"Oh. What's that?"

"Well, we didn't do everything I'd planned to do. The night you died, I mean. We saw the lights, but that was it. Let's finish the evening." So together Yuzuru and Hatsune spent a long while in town. They had a full delicious meal, Hatsune picked out a small gold chain necklace, and Yuzuru let her pick out another manga. He made sure to make note of the title, so he wouldn't get a different one when he came back again. And everywhere they went, Yuzuru carried Hatsune on his back, just like on her final night.


	3. Chapter 3

"Okay everybody, listen up! It's time for Operation High Tension Syndrome," Yuri instructed her teammates. For a moment nobody answered.

"What's Operation High Tension Syndrome?" Lena asked.

"It's simple really. Our four fastest runners charge into enemy territory, yelling as loud as they can to draw attention. Then those four will draw the enemy to the north. Once they've done that, the remaining attack force, me included, will cross into enemy territory in the south. Our defenders will obviously stay to guard the package. Yusa will contact me if it looks like our defenses are about to be overrun. Any questions?"

"I have a question."

"Yes, Adam?"

"Which way is north?"

Yuri pressed her hand against her face. Her friends were great, but sometimes they were pretty stupid. "The left side is North. Anything else?" Nobody had any more foolish questions. "Okay then! Runner Group, get ready... Go!" On Yuri's call, Adam and three others took off yelling and screaming.

"When do we go, Yuri?" Hitomi asked her leader.

"We should wait about a minute, to give them time to clear the enemies out of the South. I figure it's been about fifteen seconds so far." Yuri and the other five on the Attack Group sat silently in the darkened woods of Summer Blend. The others wouldn't move until Yuri gave the word.

"When we go, we go quickly and quietly as possible." Her teammates nodded. "Okay, go now!" The six members of Attack Group took off to the right. Some of them stooped as they ran, ducking behind trees and bushes. They could hear the members of Runner Group yelling off to their left. They made their way deep into enemy grounds. Yuri was feeling good about her plan. They weren't seeing any resistance.

"WE'VE GOT GREENS OVER HERE! I NEED BACKUP!"

"Ah, damn it!" She knew it had been too easy. "There's only one! Stick to the plan, he can't get us all!" Their cover blown, the members of Attack Group all entered into full sprint toward their objective.

"I see it! Up ahead!"

Yuri pulled out her walkie-talkie. "Runner Group, are you ready?"

"We're cornered!" It was Adam who'd answered. "Finish the objective! We'll try to meet up with you during extraction!"

Another voice followed his over the walkie-talkie. It was Yusa. "Yuri, we have a problem! They're closing in on the package!" Everything was falling apart at once. Yuri would have to improvise.

"Lena! Hitomi! I need you to go back and try to run interference! Yusa says they're in trouble!" At that the two girls turned around, dodged their pursuer and went to help out the Defense Group.

Yuri hadn't looked behind her or stopped running during any of this. She and the remaining members of Attack Group made their way in for the grab. It was Yuri who got to the flag first. She picked it up on the run, not even slowing down. She then took a wide arc back around to the right to go back the way they'd come in. However, their pursuer's warning had gotten his teammates' attention, and she was now looking at five Brown Team members. It was unlikely she'd get by them all, but she had to try.

"Yuri! Over here! Pass it!"

It was Adam. He and another member of Runner Group had escaped and were now running parallel with her. She tossed the flag over the heads of two Browns just as they captured her. One then returned to pursuing Adam as the other took her walkie from her and escorted her back to Brown Base.

"We've caught your leader," he taunted to Yusa over the walkie.

"It doesn't matter," Yuri told him. "We got your flag. It's all over for you." Sure enough, in a matter of moments there was a breakout of cheering from behind them.

"GAME OVER! EVERYBODY COME BACK! GAME OVER, GREEN TEAM WINS!"

"Told you it was over." Together Yuri and her escort made their way back to the middle of the playing field.

"Good game, Yuri. That was a good strategy," the Brown Team captain told her, shaking her hand.

"It really wasn't. I just knew you'd be dumb enough to fall for it."

"Why do you gotta be mean? You can never just take the compliment."

"Sorry. It was a good game. You almost pulled it off. Well, I'm gonna head home. See everybody tomorrow?"

They all agreed to hang out more the next day, and went their separate ways. Yuri and Yusa lived on the far side of town from the woods, so they walked most of the way together.

"That really was a good strategy Yuri. It's like you were meant to be a leader."

"It's nothing really. Anybody could do it."

"I don't think so. You really know how to inspire people. You make it easy for people to want to follow you. They trust you because you show trust in them."

"I guess that might be true. I've never really thought about it. All our friends are so great, it's really easy for me to trust them. I mean the worst that could happen is that we lose the game. Then we would just try again next time."

"Maybe. But with you as our captain we hardly ever lose. You really do have a talent for leading people Yuri."

"That's nice of you to say, but I still think you're making too much of it. Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow Yusa."

"Okay. Bye, Yuri."

When Yuri got home she was greeted by her mother

"Welcome back, dear. Did you have fun with your friends?"

"Yep. My team won capture the flag. It was really close."

"That sounds like fun. I bet it was because of your wonderful leadership skills."

"You know, Yusa just said something like that."

"Well, Yusa's right."

As Yuri talked to her mother, the younger of her two sisters, Miyako, walked over and tugged on her shirt. "Hey, you," Yuri greeted. "What's up?"

"We want you to read to us."

In the afterlife people didn't need to sleep, although they could if they wanted to. Sleep or not, when it got dark in the region of Summer Blend, it was common for Yuri's younger siblings to ask her to read to them.

"Okay. Go pick out a story and I'll be up in a minute." Yuri had her own room, but her bed was large enough to fit her and all three of her small siblings easily.

She took a glass out of the cupboard and got herself some water from the faucet. Then she went upstairs to her room where her siblings were already sitting comfortably on her bed.

"What are we reading tonight?"

"This one." Her brother Kichirou held up a familiar children's book. It was the first one Yuri had read to them after she arrived in the afterlife.

"Good choice," she told him. She crawled from the foot of the bed and settled herself between Miyako and Kichirou and took the book from him. She read the story to them as she had dozens of times before. As she read they leaned in toward her, listening intently and looking at the illustrations. Somewhere around the middle of the book her siblings went from sitting to laying down on the cozy bed. Kichirou was the first to fall asleep, followed shortly by Miyako. Finally Chouko, the oldest of the three, dozed off as well. Yuri reached over Miyako to place the book on the bedside table, then turned off the light to go to sleep herself, surrounded by the three people she cared about most in the world.

As long as Yuri had been here in the afterlife now, she still cherished these moments that she'd been robbed of during her life. She couldn't help but be protective of them, even though there was nothing left that could harm them. As she drifted off to sleep Yuri couldn't imagine caring about anyone even half as much as she cared for her siblings.


	4. Chapter 4

It was a familiar scenario Hinata found himself in. Standing between first and second, he watched as the batter approached home plate. The winning run stood on second base, but they had two outs here in the final inning. If they got this batter out they'd hold on for the win.

The pitcher made his pitch selection and wound up. He threw the ball towards home, hoping to get the ball into the catcher's mitt. The batter swung on the first pitch and made contact with the ball. The sound the bat made when it hit the ball told Hinata that the batter hadn't gotten the whole of the ball, he'd hit it with the top of the bat. Hinata looked up into the brilliant sun of Summer Day and found the ball above him. Despite not making good contact, the ball was still looking to leave the infield. The outfielders wouldn't be able to run far enough in to make the catch in time. It was up to him. He started running back, making sure to keep his eye on the ball, to see where it would fall. He stuck out his glove hand and made the grab, barely keeping the ball in the webbing of the glove. That was the end of the game. He had saved the win for his team.

His teammates ran up to him and piled on top of him, jumping and shouting wildly as if this had been the biggest game in the world. It wasn't, of course. It was just a simple pick up game, but nonetheless Hinata and all of his teammates were excited to have won. As the celebration wound down and everybody cooled off, his team's pitcher, Bram, came up to Hinata.

"Hey, Hinata. You played really well today. That was a great catch there at the end."

"Thanks, man. I'm kinda surprised I made it. I have been known to drop a routine play or two."

"No need to be hard on yourself. That was a long time ago."

"No need to be so serious. It was a joke. What happened back then doesn't bother me anymore. There's more important things than a game of baseball."

"Got any plans for the rest of the day?"

"Not really. I might go into town just for the heck of it. Grab something to eat, go to the music store, something like that. Why do you ask? Did you wanna hang out?"

"Some of us were talking about seeing a concert a little bit later. You interested? You said you might go to the music store. Seeing a live show would be better, don't you think?"

"Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun. I have nothing else to do, so yeah, I'll go with you guys."

"Great. See you there then?"

"Of course. Later man." As Bram took off, Hinata's lingering high from winning the baseball game increased further still. It had been some time since he'd been to a live performance. He was looking forward to it, and he didn't even know what band would be playing. Maybe he'd even meet a fun, cute girl while he was there. There was always that possibility.


	5. Chapter 5

Yuzuru continued to carry Hatsune on his back as they made their way to her home, a concept he still couldn't quite wrap his head around. He'd done his best to put his questions aside and enjoy finally getting to spend time with his sister again, but as he walked they began to surface in his mind again, going back to when he first arrived.

"You've been here for a couple of years now, right Hatsune?"

"I don't really know how long it's been. Time here is different. Like I said, this place doesn't even ever have daylight. Other places never have night. So it's not really that easy to say how long it's been. It has been a really long time though."

"So you know a lot about this place by now?"

"I guess so."

"Do you know why I woke up in that hotel?" As he asked the question he realized his clothes were still back at the hotel room. Or were they his clothes?

"Everyone wakes up in a hotel. You get a wake up call, and most of the time a message from somebody you knew when you were alive."

"How did you know when I would get here?"

"I got a message, just like you did. It said that you'd be arriving soon. It said that you had been busy. It said you'd been working really hard and saving people, and I should be proud of you. Of course I didn't need a piece of paper to tell me that."

"Does that mean you didn't actually write that message? It was just an automated response?" This second question reminded him of the phone.

"No, I wrote it. I was told you'd be coming and that I should leave a note for you."

"Okay, how about the cell phone? Is that mine? Why is it empty?"

"It's just like a normal cell phone. You have to put in the contacts yourself. It's all voice activated."

"Hold my neck tight for a second. I'm going to try it out." Hatsune did as he asked and tightened her grip as he pulled the phone from his pocket. "Okay, what's your number?"

"There are too many people here for numbers. All you have to do is say my name and I'll be added in."

That made sense. Everybody dies after all. That's a lot of people in the afterlife. "Okay. 'Hatsune Otonashi.'"

"That's all it takes."

They went the rest of the way to Hatsune's house in silence. Neither of them needed to say anything, they were both happy just being back together. They'd never gotten to have time like this when they were alive since Hatsune had spent her last two years in a hospital, and before that she was simply too young to do much of anything. Yuzuru was beginning to see why his sister liked it here so much. Even though he'd just been told he was dead, he got to be with his sister again. Nothing seemed to bother him. The pain of that night had been swept away and it was just another memory, just one moment of his life. His perspective had changed and he was able to recognize the true beauty of where he was. The lights on the trees reflected off the surface of the snow, creating a golden glow above and below him. It was a wonderful place to live.

Finally they reached Hatsune's house, which was now of course Yuzuru's as well. He stopped to look at it without realizing. It didn't look like a big house from the outside, but it didn't need to be. There were only two of them after all. In fact, for just Hatsune, it had probably been more than enough.

"Well, big bro, let's go in."

"Oh. Right."

The house was very similar on the inside as it was on the outside, simple and modest in design, but a lovely place nonetheless. There was a living room, a small dining room, a kitchen and a small hallway leading to two bedrooms, and a closed door he assumed was the bathroom.

"So you have a kitchen. It's good to see that there's still food in the afterlife."

"Yep. You'll never be hungry and you'll never get full. You can eat anything you want, just because it's tasty. Plus you never have to use the toilet."

"So that closed door isn't a bathroom?"

"That's exactly what it is. A _bath_ room, if you want to take a bath or a shower."

"So you can still get dirty?"

"Of course you can. Sometimes it's fun to get dirty! Or you can take a bath just because it's relaxing."

The more Yuzuru heard about the afterlife, the more he liked it. It was very focused on the simple joys of life.

"Didn't you say you lived here alone? Why do you have two bedrooms?"

"In case you ever showed up, of course."

"You say that as if there was a chance I might not show up. I was obviously going to die at some point."

"Well... there's more to it than that. I know that in life, you only died a few years after I did, but you didn't come straight here. It's a bit confusing really. I can't explain it to you."

"More to it? Can you at least try to explain it to me?"

"Sorry big bro, but I _can't_ explain it. I'm not allowed."

This caught Yuzuru off guard. There were things in the afterlife that you weren't allowed to do? He figured there were thing that people _didn't_ do, like stealing, because it seemed like there was plenty of everything, but things you _couldn't_ do? There was more to this place indeed. And if he hadn't come straight to this place when he died, where, if anywhere, had he been?


End file.
